FrenchJazzFa
Well-Known Member
France have a very bad game against Israel. Show their limitations. Deep roster but no star able to take the leadership when shoot just don't go in.
Eurobasket 2025
- Thread starter SD Jazz
- Start date
Peter_Mentor
Active Member
Lauri always seems to be more comfortable with the Finnish defensive schemes. Additionally, the combination of hard hedging and the team's overall athleticism has caused havoc against weaker teams.
Yeah they do hedge off screens very aggressively. Cant do that when they face teams with NBA level playmakers.
Step-Back Lauri
Well-Known Member
Lauri struggling against Lithuania, they defend him really well. Finland down by 9 after first half. Lauri 3/9 7pts. His passing game has been solid.
FalseFlagg K
Well-Known Member
Garbage take
What a weird take. Lauri had the worst shooting night and both him and Finland's other key scorer Sasu Salin couldn't hit a jumper to save their lives (I think Lauri hit just 1 jumpshot the whole game and Sasu hit 0). But despite his dry jumper and no help/threat by his Robin he still managed to score pretty solid.
Lithuania was defending him with smaller players who were able to stick with him around screens thus making it uncomfortable for the guards to pass him the ball and making it harder for Lauri to dribble himself. He tried to use that to his advantage by constantly pinning those smaller guys down but Finland's guards just arent comfortable throwing lobs to pindowns so they mostly ignored them. The few times they did throw him a lob he was instantly doubled but still was able to score some on the rim.
Other than that he was working his tail off off-ball to create space for others with Lithuania putting so much effort into locking him down, which resulted in the less heralded guys getting easy looks and solid numbers on the scoresheet and Lauri getting a +5 on the box with big minutes (only 8:42 total rest minutes). When he wasnt on the court and Lithuania defended the others properly they couldnt do anything offensively.
Btw it was interesting how Lithuania coach used Jonas Valanciunas in the first half. He was matching non-Lauri minutes to the teeth and thus barely played in the first half as Lauri didnt rest as much as he usually does.
Second half they did share the court some but still he ended up playing just 15 minutes the whole game.
I'm not entirely sure why and didnt pay attention to the announcer whether he had some theory about it or not... but I think it was maybe related to both transition speed and defensive rotations. They wanted to double Lauri at the low post and probably felt like Jonas isnt quick enough to both cover his own assignment and still move to double/help if necessary. Could have also been about foul drawing as Jonas is probably an easier target for Lauri to draw fouls from than the smaller guys they ran with.
Second half they did share the court some but still he ended up playing just 15 minutes the whole game.
I'm not entirely sure why and didnt pay attention to the announcer whether he had some theory about it or not... but I think it was maybe related to both transition speed and defensive rotations. They wanted to double Lauri at the low post and probably felt like Jonas isnt quick enough to both cover his own assignment and still move to double/help if necessary. Could have also been about foul drawing as Jonas is probably an easier target for Lauri to draw fouls from than the smaller guys they ran with.
Step-Back Lauri
Well-Known Member
Valanciunas would definitely have been too slow for the way Finland prefers to run the floor with Lauri. Lithuania didn't want to give any unnecessary chances for fast breaks, which is Finland's bread and butter